“But if I raced autos, there’d be no expectations and I could have fun”
By the time Hedge won his first hat-trick in the epic Sydney to Darwin Safari, he was already being referred to as Australia’s Stéfane Peterhansel; something he found a touch cringeworthy. “Back then, all our information about the Paris-Dakar was secondhand hearsay,” Hedge recalls. “Comparing Dakar with the Safari was completely hypothetical; as we later found out.”
Hedge’s modesty didn’t prevent him from continually improving the performance of his Honda XR600, winning a second Safari hat-trick between 1994 and 1996. He admits to having some luck along the way, but six wins in seven attempts proved his navigational skills, preparation and mechanical sympathy were second to none.
These attributes were underscored when Hedge took what was to be his final Safari ride. Dakar winner Edi Orioli was out early with a broken Yamaha but World Cross-Country Champion Heinz Kinigadner had an outrageously fast, factory-built KTM.
“I was going all out for the first three days,” recalled Hedge. “And realised that Kinigadner was faster and I wasn’t going to catch him. Sooner or later I would have crashed or damaged my bike so I decided to back off and be there at the finish.”
In the lead Kinigadner took a wrong track and, in his haste to regain the lead, crashed out. Hedge took his sixth win and announced his retirement.
But Hedge was back the following year, this time in a Nissan Patrol. “On the bikes the expectation was that I’d win; despite going up against guys riding professionally,” Hedge said. “But if I started competing in autos, there’d be no expectations and I could start having fun again.”
Three years later, with old riding mate John ‘Yap’ Williams navigating, the pair wrenched the Safari 4WD crown from perennial champion Bruce Garland. This led to a factory drive with the Holden Rally Team and, once again, the expectations were high. Hedge and Yap proved indomitable, the win giving Hedge his eighth victory in what was Australia’s toughest cross-country event; the future of which looked very doubtful. But with the rebirth of the Safari in Western Australia in 2007, Hedge and Yap teamed up again for their third victory in the Auto Division. Then, with much fanfare, the HRT Colorado was entered for Red Bull’s ever smiling Craig Lowndes.
With Hedge’s mentoring, Lowndes took a maiden victory in the 2010 Safari, but the following year he wasn’t so lucky when he speared the HRT Colorado into the mulga.
A year later, with veteran Kees Weel navigating, Hedge racked up his 10th Safari win before, again, announcing his retirement. Hedge may have retired from cross-country navigational rallies, but a few seasons racing a Jimco Buggy in the Finke Desert Race kept the adrenaline flowing.
In 2014 Hedge’s sons Toby and Beau managed to convert him from his venerable XR600 to a new KTM 500 EXC – just in time for the three of them to take on the inaugural Tony Kirby Memorial Ride, and he has since upgraded to a KTM 1190 Adventure he uses to service Toby on his Finke attempts.
But most of the time it’s hard yakka tending to the family’s orange orchard at Belah Heights in Victoria and, according to one of Hedge’s former Safari competitors, making the world’s tastiest salamis.
In August 2017, long-distance cross-country racing was revived with the Sunraysia Safari; only a stone’s throw from the orchard. Hedge’s youngest son Toby, a Finke and Hattah veteran at only 22, signed up for his first navigational event. And, at the same time, managed to convince the old man to drag the 2000 Safari-winning Nissan Patrol out of the shed.
Despite his navigational rookie status, Toby managed a fine second place over the four-day event and Hedge managed to punt the old Nissan into third overall. And deftly managed to avoid any talk of next year. But make no mistake, the fun was back.
Peter Whitaker
